Leik Myrabo, aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, visiting UID.
Images of different design solutions, developed during Lightcraft Project
”Space isn&t remote at all. It&s only an hour&s drive away if your car could go straight upwards” Fred Hoyle
In collaboration with Leik Myrabo, aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the three MA programmes at UID; Advanced Product Design, Transportation Design and Interaction Design, have been designing the experience of travelling with a lightcraft. Eleven teams with one student from each programme in them have been involved in research, workshops and development of concepts, ideas and scenarios to design the ideal travel experience.
On Thursday, December 10th the students are presenting the projects they have been working with for ten weeks and beside the programme directors Demian Horst, Niklas Andersson and Thomas Degn, Professor Leik Myrabo were listening and giving feedback.
These are some of the details in the different presentations: a special kind of suit belt that strategically and evenly distributes the g-force’s pressure on the body, a pukeport next to your armrest in case of motion sickness, seats that adjust depending on the weight and length of the passenger, tickets with lightport (the equivalent of an airport) navigation and information about departure and arrival, virtual luggage and holograms inside the lightcraft that simulates the atmosphere outside.
Leik Myrabo’s opinion of the designs and scenarios is that most of them are mind-blowing. The students have opened Myrabo’s eyes in regard to the integration between lightcraft and people, an area he has not yet researched. Myrabo thinks the students have invented so many interesting ways to get in and out of the lightcraft and he believes the students have improved the experience of travelling and minimized the things that could go wrong when it comes to human interaction. Since a lot of people assume this technology is science fiction the students can help to visualize it in ways that make people see that it is a possible future. The technology is ideal for the beyond oil era.
So far 150 successful flights have been executed and the first one was in 1997. When Leik Myrabo started his research 30 years ago he believed that the technology would be ready to use in 2025 and he still thinks that is feasible. After that it will need 20 to 25 years to develop before it is suitable for commercial use.
Demian Horst, the programme director of the Transportation Design Programme met Professor Leik Myrabo at the Art Center Summit Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility in Pasadena earlier this year. Demian was acquainted with Leik’s work and approached Myrabo at the summit to talk about potential collaboration. After they agreed on cooperation project Leik then came to UID the first week of October (his first time in Sweden) and then again in mid November. At least a couple of hundred students have contributed to Myrabo’s research but he has never before collaborated with so many student teams at the same time.
